Are Tactical Nukes In Play?

What are ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons, and would Putin use them?

ADAM PLOWRIGHT, DAPHNÉ BENOIT and DIDIER LAURAS

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised the specter of something considered almost unthinkable until recently: the use of a small nuclear weapon during a conflict in Europe.

AFP looks at the risk that Russian President Vladimir Putin would authorize a so-called “tactical” nuclear strike against a country he has repeatedly claimed forms “one people” with Russia.On February 27, three days after the start of the invasion, Putin ordered his defense chiefs to put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert in a highly choreographed meeting in front of TV cameras.

Western countries quickly condemned the move, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling it “provocative” and “the height of irresponsibility.”

Most Western analysts believe the rhetoric was designed to deter the United States and its allies from increasing their support for Ukraine beyond existing economic sanctions and weapons supplies.

“Not only is this meant to instill fear in the whole world; it’s also meant to scare anyone from helping in Ukraine,” Beatrice Fihn, who leads the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, told AFP.

Russia has the largest number of nuclear warheads of any country, according to the SIPRI peace research institute in Stockholm, which puts the figure at 6,255.

Experts say the risk in Ukraine is not the deployment of a giant “strategic” weapon, which pose a threat to the entire planet.

Instead, Putin might be tempted to use a “tactical” weapon, with a smaller warhead that causes localized devastation but without threatening life across Europe.

These weapons come in various sizes, and their impact depends on whether they explode at ground level or above the Earth’s surface.

US President Joe Biden also claimed this week that Moscow was considering the use of chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine.

“Chemical weapons would not change the course of the war. A tactical nuclear weapon that reduces a Ukrainian city to rubble? Yes,” Mathieu Boulegue, an analyst at the London-based Chatham House, told AFP.

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